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DeveloperSide.NET Servers Moved

DeveloperSide.NET [and friends] started back in 2002/3 — with the lease of a dedicated server at rackshack.net -> which turned into ev1servers.net -> now known as theplanet -> which is also known as servermatrix… and who knows what else.

$120/month for a 512MB, P4 2.0, with a 10Mbit pipe, 700-1300GB allowance. You can get the same, or better, for about $70 a month now. But in my case, I would have had to switch to a new server to get the new price. Should have, could have, would have…

The service has been ok, in the sense that nothing major has gone wrong. I have not had to use support much either — just some minor issues and problems… Not that their support is good or anything; from what I have heard, it is not.

Recently, I updated my account’s cc info, and their system failed to take it. I called, they said no problem. Long story short: I made the mistake of assuming that they would simply credit back the cash, and just bill the new cc. Did not happen. cc is overcharged and for all I know, this could reflect bad on my credit, and raise the charge percentage six months.

Now that the Web-Developer Server Suite is on SourceForge [and pushing out 10gigs/day, moving up fast], I have taken the liberty of moving servers/providers…

We are now on a Linux VPS/VDS [virtual server] CentOS install at Linode. $20/month. They use UML [user mode linux] and have been established for some time. Can’t beat that price either for what you get. They offer different distros, but make sure to choose CentOS, as its a RHEL clone, and comes with everything you need from the start. Just one note though, and a major one… After you update the packages on the system (use yum over up2date), make sure you reboot with the 2.6 Linode kernel or you will think you hosed the system. I’m not sure why they do not just say so somewhere — their docs are seriously lacking.

The pings to the original server averaged 31ms, and now are at 91ms, but thats still pretty low to begin with, and the site(s) seem just as responsive, if not more. DNS has been updated with the new nameservers, and everything looks ok. All in all, a rather painful experience having to migrate data/servers, but it had to be done.

The only downside to this all, aside from taking 2 solid days out of my life, is the problem of the dynamic dns client that comes with the WDController…

It’s hardcoded to the old IP address; as I used a socket for the connection and the domain resolution on Windows seemed to freeze everything for a few seconds. Nothing can be done about it, and it wont be a problem until I shut the old server down. But still a mess nevertheless, and I will need to finish DynamicSide.NET and redo the client to POST the data to the domain. The work just never seems to stop.